Racism found even on Web

A cute little Internet item is making the rounds on Facebook. Basically, it asks: If someone from the past appeared today, what would be the hardest thing to explain about modern life?

The answer: “I possess a device, in my pocket, that is capable of accessing the entirety of information known to man.

“I use it to look at pictures of cats and get in arguments with strangers.”

Ain’t it the truth. Personally, I harbor a fondness for silly cat videos and simply adore Henri, the bored, existential French feline who quotes Camus and loathes humans. As for Internet arguments, I tend to avoid them because I spar enough on the job, and consider Facebook a fun diversion that reminds me to wish my friends Happy Birthday.

But I made an exception last week, courtesy of a man who is a Facebook friend for reasons that escape me. This guy is a well-educated, professional family man and grandfather who lives in Central Massachusetts. Politically, he dislikes Barack Obama and abortion rights. He’s a Catholic, with a background in mental health counseling. I’ve never met him so I can’t say for sure, but he’s never struck me as a raving whack job.

And allow me to offer this caveat. I’m not naive, so I know that racists walk among us, and not all of them are ignorant good-old-boys from the Deep South. Still, though, I’m always a bit surprised when bigotry is revealed in casual, careless ways, or couched in oblivious comments.

Anyway, this Facebook friend posted an item in which he claimed that two magazines conducted surveys on what their readers fear most. The top three answers in Country Living, which has a white readership, were: nuclear war, the death of a child or spouse and terminal illness. In Ebony, which has a black readership, the answers were: ghosts, dogs and registered mail.

The Facebook friend then posted a personal editorial comment: “No kidding. And these are the people who put Obama over the top.” He also wrote, “This is pathetic, but quite funny when you think about it for a moment.”

The first responder to the post asked how anyone can doubt that “America is in decline” after reading the survey. The next one wrote: “Wowee! Wonder if the Ebony responders were serious? I’m afraid they might have been.”

Actually, the Ebony responders weren’t serious at all because they don’t exist, nor do the responders from Country Living. As noted quickly by Facebook friend Walter Crockett, this survey never took place and was debunked years ago by snopes.com.

I wrote that the man should be “ashamed to post something like this.” Walter, who is more diplomatic, said he was “disappointed” that the man posted a “blatantly racist” item without bothering to learn whether it was true. I also wrote to Walter: good for you.

Now, please complete the following quick quiz. In response to being revealed as gullible at best and a raving racist at worse, what was this man’s response?

•He posted an adorable video of a black kitten holding paws with a white one.

•He accused liberals of having “no sense of humor.”

If you guessed the latter, bingo. Never mind that this man clearly believed the post and wasn’t hesitant to spread it, gloatingly, across the Internet. Never mind that the racism was obvious: The fears of white people are rational and mature, while the fears of black people are childlike and silly. (The “registered mail” apparently refers to letters from collection agencies, court summonses and lawyers — you know, the kind of mail that black people get). And black people are dumb, so they voted for Obama.

“If you think it was racial that is your own projected guilt perhaps,” he posted to me. “I love humor of all races and creeds.”

In the ugly picture of bigotry in America, one could maintain that this incident is a blip. But such racist Internet posts are proliferating, and the fact that this repellent item wasn’t roundly condemned — the man has more than 600 friends — is troubling.

Ironically, this man’s favorite quote is, “No One Heals Himself By Wounding Another,” by St. Ambrose.

I’ll offer another: “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.”

Obviously, objecting to an odious online post isn’t nearly as brave as, say, refusing to sit in the back of the bus. Still, silence implies acceptance. And how would we explain to a time traveler from the past that scrolling for cute kittens was more important than exposing a racist rant?